New and improved potato salad recipe.

Here's how today went: got up, ate something, read the paper but avoided the sports section (painful loss last night), went back to bed a little, got up, shower, went out to buy a British fashion mag, took college daughter to the dentist (she requires laughing gas before the novocaine, which means she needs a ride after), dropped her back home, picked up Scotland daughter and grand-girls, went to new(est) baby daughter's house to hang out.

There, we had snacks, wrangled toddlers and dogs and babies, watched dvd episodes of The Office (American version--my Lord, it is genius! how and why have I avoided it so long? and just spare me your "the British version is better" harangue, because the British version is genius, I already know, Ricky Gervais is a genius, I know, I know!), made cookies, changed diapers, did a Dora the Explorer puzzle . . . I didn't do all of this personally, but I was involved, okay, and after all of that, we drove home, I did a monumental pile of dishes, and then I went to a board meeting in the evening after a little whining to the historian, and then, finally, the day was done.

Every day for the past week or so has been almost this complicated. The dishes were monumental because yesterday, the Scots contingent came over for breakfast and I also made potato salad and green salad to take down to a family party at my folks'. In the middle of this, I went to new baby daughter's house for a few hours, and the dogs took care of the remains of breakfast. Before we left to go to my folks', I basically was emulsifying a vinaigrette while running out the door, so the mess just improved all day. Then, we were kind of beat when we got home, so it kept on improving. Also for part of the day today. Whew! Those dishes were about the best they could be by the time I got around to putting them in the dishwasher.

At least in the midst of all this, I came up with an improvement on my old standby potato salad, which was darn good before the improving. It goes like this: boil your potatoes, and if they're a really good potato, so much the better. These were Yukon Golds. While they're boiling, mince up some red onion and some celery. When the potatoes are cooked (a fork pierces them pretty easily to the middle of the potato), drain and cool them. Make a vinaigrette with olive oil, a mild wine vinegar, crushed sea salt, ground pepper, a dollop of brown mustard, and (this is the improvement) super-finely minced fresh rosemary. Whisk it all together with a fork (or, if you have a jar, just shake it like a Polaroid picture). Pour about a third of it into the bottom of the bowl with the onion and the celery. Then cut the potatoes like you like them. I keep the skins on, but you can take them off if you're fastidious. Then pour the rest of the vinaigrette over the potatoes and gently fold the whole thing together. Then try not to eat it while you drive down to Provo, because there won't be enough left for the party, which would be a shame, because everyone loves this salad, even if there aren't any eggs in it, which new baby daughter would prefer, but I just don't, no matter how finely you cut up the egg.